Questions linger after Kenya mall attack

By Michael Pearson and Zain Verjee, CNN

updated 10:22 PM EDT, Wed September 25, 2013

Relatives of Johnny Mutinda Musango, 48, weep after identifying his body at the city morgue in Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday, September 24. Musango was one of the victims of the Westgate Mall hostage siege. Kenyan security forces were still combing the mall on the fourth day of the siege by al Qaeda-linked terrorists.

Ann Gakii reacts at the Nairobi City Mortuary after identifying the body of her father, who was killed in the mall attack on Saturday.

A Kenyan soldier runs through a corridor on an upper floor at the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, on September 24, shortly before an explosion was heard. Sounds of heavy gunfire erupted from the mall Tuesday, even as authorities said they had the building under their control. But four days after Al-Shabaab terrorists stormed the swanky mall, several gunmen -- including snipers -- were still inside, two senior officials said.

Kenyan Defense Forces walk near the mall on Monday, September 23.

Kenyan Defense Forces leave the mall on September 23.

Stephen, center, is comforted by relatives as he waits for the post mortem exam of his father, who was killed in Saturday's attack at the mall.

A Kenyan police officer guards the entrance of a building near the mall on September 23.

A Kenyan security officer takes cover as gunfire and explosions are heard from the mall on September 23.

Heavy smoke rises from the Westgate Shopping Mall on September 23.

Medics take cover behind a tree as gunfire and explosions are heard from the Westgate Mall on September 23.

A Kenyan police security officer runs for cover as heavy smoke rises from the mall on September 23.

A paramedic runs for cover outside the mall on September 23.

People run for cover outside the mall after heavy shooting started on September 23.

Kenyan security forces crouch behind a wall outside the mall on September 23.

Soldiers take cover after gunfire near the mall on September 23.

Kenyan paramilitary police officers patrol the area near the mall on Sunday, September 22.

Soldiers from the Kenya Defense Forces arrive outside the Westgate Mall on September 22.

A woman shields a baby as a soldier stands guard inside the Westgate Mall on Saturday, September 21.

A rescue worker helps a child outside the mall.

People who had been hiding inside the mall during the gunfire flee the scene.

An armed official takes a shooting position inside the mall.

An armed official crouches on September 21.

Bodies lie on the ground inside the mall.

Men help a wounded woman outside the mall.

Officials carry an injured man in the mall.

Soldiers move up stairs inside the Westgate Mall.

Armed police leave after entering the mall. At least one suspect has been killed, a government official said. Police have said another suspected gunman has been detained at a Nairobi hospital.

Armed police take cover behind escalators as smoke fills the air. Witnesses say tear gas was thrown in the corridors.

A woman who had been hiding during the attack runs for cover after armed police enter the mall.

A body is seen on the floor inside the smoke-filled four-story mall.

An injured person is helped on arrival at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi after the attack at the upscale mall.

A soldier directs people up a stairway inside the Westgate on September 21.

An injured man is wheeled into the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi.

People run from the Westgate Mall.

A Kenyan woman is helped to safety after the masked gunmen stormed the upscale mall and sprayed gunfire on shoppers and staff.

Crowds gather outside the upscale shopping mall. The interior ministry urges Kenyans to keep off the roads near the mall so police can ensure everyone inside has been evacuated to safety.

A policeman carries a baby to safety. Authorities said multiple shooters were at the scene.

Bodies lie outside the shopping mall.

A security officer helps a wounded woman outside.

Elaine Dang of San Diego is helped to safety after the attack. The military asked local media not to televise anything live because the gunmen are watching the screens in the mall.

Paramedics treat an injured man outside the mall.

Medical personnel carry a body away.

A body lies outside the mall. Gunmen shot people outside the mall as they entered it

A woman is pulled by a shopping cart to an ambulance.

A wounded man is escorted outside the mall.

A police officer carries a baby as people keep low and run to safety. Crowds dashed down the streets as soldiers in military fatigues, guns cocked, crawled under cars to get closer to the mall.

People run away from the scene.

Armed Kenyan forces take position to secure the area around the shopping mall as ambulances move in to carry the injured.

A woman reacts after she is rescued from the mall.

A couple flee the area. As night fell, authorities said they had cornered the gunmen in the mall.

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

There are conflicting reports on a British man held in Kenya for questioning

Nairobi, Kenya (CNN) -- Some answers may be revealed in blood-stained halls or deep in the rubble of Nairobi's Westgate Mall. Others may never be known.

That's the reality for investigators and the people of Kenya on Wednesday, still coming to grips with a vicious attack and armed standoff that ended a day earlier.

At least 61 civilians and six Kenyan security officers died in the four-day attack and rescue efforts, President Uhuru Kenyatta said Tuesday, but the death toll will rise as recovery workers retrieve bodies buried in the rubble of the partially collapsed mall.

Kenyan forces killed five terrorists, and 11 others are in custody over possible links to the attacks, Kenyatta said, declaring that his country had "ashamed and defeated" the attackers.

FBI seeks access to Kenya attack site

But even though Kenyatta declared the siege over, an immense amount of work remains to learn how Al-Shabaab, a terror group thought to be badly bruised by recent losses in its Somalian homeland, was able to pull off such a well-coordinated and brazen attack.

It started Saturday when the attackers stormed into the upscale mall and began shooting. A senior Kenyan government official said they took "very few" people captive; the attackers were primarily out for blood.

"They were not interested in hostage-taking," the official said. "They only wanted to kill."

The attackers were equipped well enough to kill dozens of civilians, then fend off Kenyan security forces for four days -- not the sort of action that can be pulled off on a whim.

That raises a number of questions: How could such a significant plot, involving travel arrangements, arms transfers and other details, have escaped the attention of intelligence officials? Did the attackers have inside help, either at the mall or within security forces?

So far, Kenyan and U.S. authorities aren't answering such questions, certainly not publicly.

U.S. security and law enforcement personnel are pressing for access to the mall and the bodies of the terrorists so they can begin to determine if Americans were among the attackers, according to a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the situation.

"That is the million-dollar question," the official said. "We do not have much fidelity on this. We haven't had access to the scene."

But based on what the United States knows so far, "this was meticulously planned," the official said. "This is not something where the attackers walked into the mall all of the sudden."

The United States is looking at the possibility the attackers stored their weapons inside the mall ahead of time and may have even rented a store there as a base of operations. The Americans are also looking at reports the attackers may have had access to blueprints of the mall and knowledge of the location of employee and service personnel stairways as well as ventilation systems.

FBI experts from the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center are assisting Kenyans on a preliminary basis.They have specific expertise in analyzing explosives and fingerprints. But the United States wants autopsy and forensic data, including DNA samples, to help determine if Americans were involved, the official said. The United States also will scour any communications or intercepts for clues, according to other officials.

American experts also will try to analyze any evidence of grenades and heavy belt-fed machine gunsbeing used, the official said. He noted grenade attacks by Al-Shabaab are fairly common.

The U.S. belief so far is that Al-Shabaabhard-line leader Ahmed Abdi Godane ordered the attack, the official said.

"Nothing like this would have gotten off the ground without him. It's safe to assume this is something he would have blessed," the official said.

Who were the attackers?

Cell phone video shows Kenya mall attack

Shooting witness: We crawled under cars

Al Qaeda-linked group claims attacks

Kenyan authorities have said 10 to 15 attackers were believed to be involved.

One attacker was Dutch and another British, Kenya State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu told CNN on Wednesday.

Al-Shabaab previously had said Americans were involved in the attack, a claim Kenyatta also noted Tuesday but said has not been verified. Esipisu said Wednesday that Kenyan authorities believe attackers of "a few other nationalities" were involved.

Kenyan Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku told reporters Wednesday that authorities cannot confirm the nationalities of the terrorists until forensic testing is complete. He said the United States, Israel, Britain, Germany and Canada are helping in the mall forensic investigation.

Reports that a white woman was among the terrorists who stormed the mall have prompted a slew of media speculation about Samantha Lewthwaite, a British woman whose husband was one of the suicide bombers in the 2005 London terror attacks. Known as the "White Widow," Lewthwaite has been wanted by international counterterrorism officials since authorities found bomb-making materials in her Mombasa, Kenya, apartment in 2011. She vanished shortly before a raid.

A senior Kenyan official said Tuesday a woman was involved in the attack. Esipisu said Wednesday that authorities can't say much about who the woman was or what she was doing.

"What we've been told by multiple witnesses is that they saw a woman. We have also been told that if it is the same woman that they say they saw, that she would have been killed very early on in the attack," Esipisu said. "We don't know for sure that we had a woman. And secondly, because of the bodies trapped under the rubble, we don't know if she is who everyone says she might be."

Where are they?

Some of them are dead, inside the rubble of the partially collapsed mall, Kenyatta said.

But while he said five terrorists had been killed by Kenyan forces and 11 people were in custody, it was not clear if all the attackers had been accounted for, or if some may have been able to slip out in the chaos.

A senior Kenyan official said forces were able to drive two attackers trying to escape by car back inside the mall, but it's unclear if any others might have been able to elude authorities early in the crisis. Others could have escaped by posing as civilians, perhaps after ditching weapons and changing clothes.

On Wednesday, a high-level source who asked for anonymity told CNN that Kenyan counterterrorism police had arrested a British national of Somali descent who had injuries on his face and was acting suspiciously as he tried to board a Turkish Airlines flight. It's not clear if Kenyan authorities suspect the man of being inside the mall during the attack, but authorities found they had no record of the man's entry into the country, the source said.

There is conflicting information on the man.

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office told CNN the detained man is not connected to the terrorist attack. The office did not say how it knew that man was not involved and declined to elaborate.

Kenyatta, whose country boasts deep counterterrorism ties to the United States, vowed to track down and punish the attack's perpetrators.

"These cowards will meet justice, as will their accomplices and patrons wherever they are," the Kenyan leader said Tuesday.